Are You Really An E-Rank Adventurer!?

This job was to exterminate the Saber White Wolves living in the forest near Twai Village.

Twai Village was home to many people who made their living from dairy farming. Apparently, Saber White Wolves had recently begun coming to the village pastures to prey on sheep.

Once they set their sights on a place, they kept coming back until every sheep in the village was gone.

Saber White Wolves were unusually intelligent monsters. Individually, they were B-rank monsters, but they hunted by coordinating with their packmates.

The Saber White Wolves made their den in a cave within the forest.

The interior twisted and branched like a maze.

Fortunately, the cave was bright because mushrooms called Light Mushrooms grew inside.

These mushrooms had the property of glowing in the dark.

“Holy Light.”

Yuri clasped both hands together and chanted the spell.

Holy Light was a spell that surrounded the area in a veil of light that kept monsters from approaching.

…If I remembered correctly, wasn’t that advanced magic normally used by high-ranking priests? Or was I remembering wrong?

Other monsters besides Saber White Wolves lived in this cave.

A bat-shaped monster approached us, but it recoiled from the Holy Light and quickly fled.

Now this was useful.

Other than healing and antidote magic, I hardly ever used the kinds of spells priests specialized in. I hadn’t realized Holy Light was this convenient.

“Were you a priest, Yuri?”

“No, I’m not a priest. There was one in the Hero’s party, though. She’s much better at this than I am.”

“There was a priest in that group?”

“Yeah. She wasn’t there when I was expelled.”

“The priest is a woman?”

“Yeah. I joined the party as a boy, technically, but aside from Van, every member was actually a woman.”

What kind of harem setup was that?

Don’t tell me they kicked Yuri out just so they could turn the party into a complete harem—no, no. I’d rather believe it was just a coincidence that all the capable members happened to be women.

Rosa might have been obsessed with money, but there was no denying her ability.

If Yuri had really been expelled for such an impure reason, she would’ve had every right to be furious.

Thanks to Holy Light keeping monsters from blocking our path, we had enough breathing room to walk while chatting.

“Are you part of any party, Roy?”

“I’m independent.”

“I see… Um… can an adventurer make a living while staying independent?”

“If they’re skilled enough.”

After being expelled from a party, it made sense that she’d want to work alone for a while.

In that case, as her senior in the independent adventurer life, I’d have to teach her the mindset and tricks needed to survive on her own.

After a while, we both stopped at the same time.

Grrrrrr…

Grrrrrr…

Grr… grrrrr…

Grrrrrr… grrrr…

The cave was illuminated, but not brightly enough to see very far ahead. The passage beyond us disappeared into darkness.

From that darkness came several low growls.

It seemed we were getting close to the Saber White Wolves’ den at the deepest part of the cave.

Several Saber White Wolves emerged from the far side of the cavern. They had “wolf” in their name simply because their appearance resembled one.

In reality, they were something entirely different from ordinary wolves.

For starters, they were several times the length of a human. Their silvery-white fur gleamed beautifully beneath the cave’s light.

And then there were their exposed, swordlike fangs.

The instant they realized there were only two humans before them, they leaped at us without hesitation.

I blocked the fangs aimed at tearing me apart with my sword.

Then I forced the beast back with sheer strength.

The huge monster staggered backward for a moment.

It looked slightly intimidated, apparently never expecting to be pushed back by a human.

At that moment, another Saber White Wolf dashed past my side.

It was charging straight toward Yuri, who had been supporting me from behind.

“Thunderbolt.”

The instant I chanted the spell, lightning crashed directly onto the head of the Saber White Wolf targeting Yuri.

The monster’s body arched backward like a shrimp.

Electrocuted, the Saber White Wolf collapsed without so much as a twitch.

Then even more Saber White Wolves emerged from behind the rocks.

There were more of them than I’d expected.

Apparently, this was quite the large family.

There were too many to reasonably take on one by one with a sword.

If I were alone, it would’ve been fine, but protecting Yuri at the same time made things a little troublesome.

(Maybe I’ll wipe them all out at once with Deathfire…)

I was about to chant a wide-area flame spell capable of wiping out all the enemies at once, but Yuri beat me to it.

“Wave Shock.”

The instant she finished chanting, the Saber White Wolves were hurled backward as though they had slammed into an invisible wall.

My eyes widened.

Yuri’s gaze sharpened. She drew the sword I’d given her and cut down the Saber White Wolves charging at her one after another.

Then, when an especially large Saber White Wolf—probably the pack leader—leaped at her, she swept her sword sideways and cleanly severed its head without hesitation.

The Saber White Wolf staggered forward for several steps despite having no head, then finally collapsed.

Five or six Saber White Wolves had been taken down in the blink of an eye.

Hey, hey, hey, she’d just casually slaughtered B-rank monsters.

Five or six of them, all by herself.

What part of that was E-rank!?

At the very least, she was A-rank… Could she actually be S-rank?

Before I had time to stay shocked, the remaining Saber White Wolves attacked all at once, so I swung my sword as well.

To an ordinary person’s eyes, they probably would’ve seen nothing more than several arcs of flashing steel, but I’d cut every monster down in an instant.

I couldn’t let her completely show me up, after all.

Just as a hint of competitiveness began to stir inside me, Yuri looked toward me with a startled flinch.

“S-Sorry. I ended up taking care of the enemies.”

“Huh…? No… that actually made things easier for me.”

“But… I stole your chance to shine.”

“Chance to shine!? Who needs that? It helps me if you can protect yourself!”

Halfway through saying that, I suddenly froze.

…Don’t tell me.

No, surely something that ridiculous couldn’t be true.

“Hey, when you were in your old party, were you told to fight in a way that left the finishing blows for your companions?”

“Y-Yeah. Van said it would look bad if the Hero wasn’t the one delivering the final blow.”

“…………”

What a petty bastard. And that guy was supposed to be the Hero? What a joke.

There had to be more behind Yuri still being E-rank too. If her ability truly matched E-rank, there was no way she could defeat Saber White Wolves.

“Yuri, haven’t you taken a promotion exam? With your ability, I think you could probably qualify for S-rank.”

“What!? There’s no way!”

“No, these are monsters B-rank adventurers are expected to fight.”

“Really? My companions said they were just small fry and that of course even I should be able to beat them.”

“Well, they might be small fry from the Hero’s party’s perspective… but why haven’t you taken a promotion exam?”

At my question, Yuri lowered her head sadly.

Then she answered in a trembling voice.

“…Van forbade me from taking one because someone as useless as me had no right to.”

“Van?”

“Vanrost Rain. That’s the Hero’s full name. We were childhood friends, so I always called him Van.”

The current Hero really was a complete piece of garbage. Forbidding a companion from being promoted wasn’t something an ally did.

Why the hell would he do that? Did he simply hate the idea of Yuri reaching the same rank as him?

He’d apparently even hated letting Yuri fully defeat monsters herself… That explanation seemed the most likely.

I shook my head, then patted Yuri on the shoulder.

“I’m not going to forbid you from doing anything like that. You’re not useless at all. Just like today, it makes my life easier when you can protect yourself.”

“R-Really?”

“I don’t need any chance to shine. Take the promotion exam too. If you stay E-rank, you’ll never get any decent work.”

“…”

I gently patted Yuri’s back as her blue-violet eyes filled with tears.

I’d have to look after her for a while.

That worthless Hero had apparently drilled all sorts of warped ideas into her head.

Yuri looked up at me with tearful eyes… Ngh… Cute…

Don’t stare at me like that!

When you look at this old man that intensely, I don’t know where I’m supposed to put my eyes.

We managed to defeat a large number of Saber White Wolves on this job. In addition to the request fee, selling the monsters would bring in a substantial amount of money.

With that, Yuri should be able to repay what she owed me and even find herself a new place to live.

She was still only E-rank for now, so I’d have to support her in various ways, but at her level of ability, she’d probably qualify for a higher rank almost immediately.

And she was such a cute girl too.

She’d surely become the kind of adventurer who could shine on a grand stage.

I wanted her to become so successful that those idiot Heroes would regret ever throwing her away.